It is well known in the art to remove labels adhered with pressure-sensitive adhesive to a continuous liner by directing the liner around a sharp bend so that the stiffness of the label in tending to resist bending imposes forces in tension causing at least partial separation of the label leading edge; e.g., Cole U.S. Pat. No. 2,754,994. Employing this principle necessitates maintaining guide control of a portion of the liner downstream (i.e., in advance) of the leading edge of the label.
In a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 850,266, filed Nov. 10, 1977 by Frederic Samuel Tobey, entitled Separating Laminated Layers and hereby incorporated herein by reference, there is disclosed Tobey's discovery that leading edges of discrete elements such as label layers may be removed from liner layers to which they are adhered by directing both layers at an end of an element-liner laminate around a sharp bend to cause shearing and length-wise offset between the layers, and then releasing the end, the overall orientation being such that, upon release of the end, a differential in the forces that tend to straighten the layers drives apart the shear-weakened adhesive bond.